"Aibiieee! Aibie don't gooo!" Mae Mobley shrieked as she banged on the window of her father's home. Watching the woman that had taken care of her better than her own mother ever could; the only woman that she ever felt safety, love and comfort from, walk away, never to return again. Aibileen Clark shed her tears, unsure if they were caused by the little girl's reaction, or the fact that she was out of a job, and would most likely be ostracized from other white families due to Hilly Holbrook's knack of spreading false accusations about the local help.
It was true Aibileen had never truly loved Mae…she wasn't her child, she was just another white baby she was paid to take care of and look after. But she was a sweet girl, and Aibileen worried for her knowing Elizabeth Leefolt was possibly the most unfit mother in all of Jackson. "Ms. Hilly be the only one to blame if anything should happen" thought the woman, her sobs becoming softer as the tears on her face dried from the rays of the sun.
The storm that had befallen Jackson was long over, and the weather now seemed almost optimistic. Aibileen smiled as she looked up to the clouds. She continued on her way home by foot, somewhat by choice. She knew until she could find another job it'd be wise not to spend her savings on bus fare so long as she has two working feet. And besides that, she didn't mind walking today. She wasn't tired or sore, it was as if being fired gave her strength. But she knew exactly why she felt so good…she had told that awful woman Ms. Hilly off. The way her face beamed red, and her eyes welled, made it seem that maybe what Aibileen had said really got to her. And if the words of a poor Black woman could reach someone as uppity and backwards as the neighborhood's most prominent racist, it was surely something to be happy about.
She hadn't realized how long she had been going, or how far off track she had gotten, until she passed by the county jail. The building's ominous, rusted metal structure stopped her in her tracks. All Aibileen could manage to say in response to the harsh exterior was "po' Yule May". The young maid who had been caught trying to pawn a stolen ring from the Holbrooks, her employers at the time, would be locked up for at least another month. She had sent a few letters to Aibileen, Minny, and other friends, which were surprisingly cheerful despite her surroundings. Though the tone of her writing was upbeat, you couldn't help but feel sad while reading it. Some of her words were misspelled, easy words too, and not because she was slow, but because she had taken a terrible beating to the head from a white officer. Yes she had stolen and that was wrong, but she didn't deserve to be hurt in that way. "I'm sure Ms. Hilly was mighty proud of haself."
Aibileen took a deep breath, grasping her purse a little tighter as she turned away from the jailhouse, and started heading back in the right direction. The sun was beginning to go down and as tense as things were in the South, she did not want to be prancing around alone in the dark. She decided the best way to get home sooner was to take a shortcut through an old alleyway that would lead out to the colored neighborhood most of the maids lived in, including herself.
Dumpsters full of privileged white folks' garbage lined the walls, and though she was used to the stench, something about it seemed off tonight. Aibileen prayed she wouldn't stumble across a dead body of some kind rotting away in here, but she quickly shook her head, feeling disappointed that her first thoughts immediately went to such a horrid scenario. However the echoing sounds of a dog's viscous bark could be heard, and they weren't helping her suspicions. They made her quicken her pace; she wasn't sure if the dog was near or far from her, but she knew she was at least halfway through the alley by now. Louder the barks grew until she almost felt that the dog was right behind her, following her. Stepping faster she looked back, and to her relief there was nothing or no one there. Almost running she turned her head back to see in front of her, unfortunately while she wasn't paying attention her foot got caught on something, causing her to fall. The impact re-opened an old wound she had on her right knee from another bad fall a month or so prior. She sat up and clasped her hands around the gash; the pain was so much she could focus on nothing else, not thinking to check what it was that made her trip.
He was an alcoholic and a bum, believing all Blacks were beneath him, even now with his current status. And what a surprise it was waking from his drunken stupor to see a hunched over negro so close by to him. He recoiled and reached for the knife he kept tucked away in his sock. He was groggy and his head was pounding, it was one of the worst hangovers he'd ever experienced. Feeling she was to blame for his severe headache he crawled over and pressed the point of his knife to the back of her neck, ordering her to lie down.
Aibileen's eyes widened in pure terror. She knew she was in no position to get up and out run him, but the possibilities of what this man could do to her if she stayed there convinced her enough to try. She leaped forward as far as she could, landing and stabling herself on her good knee to try standing up. It was no use, the drunk was fully awake and aware now. He pushed her back down and made her face him, bringing the knife to her neck again and pointing it up right under her chin.
"You's a pretty n*gger ain't cha?" he sneered, his reeking breath assaulting the pinned down woman's nose. He took a good look at her and said she would be punished for waking him up. He began to cut open the front of her dress all the way down the middle, maintaining a firm grip to keep her on the ground. She shook and wept; he had no sympathy for someone like her, and was looking forward to only one thing.
The sky was beautifully orange only moments ago, but now it seemed to be the dead of night. Her pleading did no good, he wasn't going to stop undressing her, and smacked her to shut her up. Once the dress was moved out of the way he returned the knife to her neck with one hand, and with the other hand he unzipped himself. He rubbed against her thigh as she let out a panicked scream. The bum was about to stick the knife through her skin for making noise, but a strong force tackled him away from Aibileen.
It was a dog, most likely the one she had heard barking earlier, attacking the drunk for what he was doing. It ferociously bit at him as he yelled out in agony. She got herself to her feet, pulling together the ripped parts of her dress and started to run. So badly she wanted to hug and pet the dog, or bring it home safely with her, but it was more important that she escape. A loud yelp and whimper could be heard as she finally got out of the alleyway, and she knew the evil man must've stabbed the poor thing. It was no time to grieve though, she ran and ran until finally she reached her house. She got inside and hurriedly locked the door, covered the windows, shut off all the lights and collapsed onto the living room couch. She cried herself to sleep and didn't wake up until about noon the next day.
"Looky here Ms. Skeeter, I'ma take care of Aibileen. And she gon' take care of me." Those words spoken by Aibileen's best friend Minny Jackson drifted through her head as her eyes refused to open, and her body refused to move. The rapid knocking at her front door wasn't even enough to get her up, that was, until she heard:
"Open up, it's the sheriff! Is anyone home!?"
Aibileen involuntarily shook and hopped off the couch. She was a nervous wreck. Although she knew she had done nothing wrong, these days just being colored was enough of an offense for the white folk. It took her a moment to find the courage to walk towards the door, after changing and whispering a quick prayer she finally opened it. The police officer barged in, clearly agitated that he had been kept waiting for so long. He did his best to hold in his temper and threw his arm in Aibileen's direction.
As a reflex she cowered away from him. But after she realized she hadn't been struck by anything, she moved her hands from her face and saw that the man was only trying to hand her her purse. Quietly she took it from him, not daring to look him in the eyes.
"You wanna explain to me what happened in that alley?"
She shook her head.
"Why were your belongings found next to a dead man and a dead animal!? You answer me gal!" a vein in his forehead clearly visible now.
Her lips quivered as she tried to keep her tears from falling.
"…H-he…he tried to, rape me…the dog s-saved me…" her voice, raspy from the lack of strength, was still audible, and the sheriff heard her loud and clear. His face paled, still enraged and now disgusted by what had just entered his ears.
The white man in Aibileen's house used to be best friends with the deceased when they were growing up and in police training. The two had fallen out of touch after a bad argument though. The dead man was a retired cop who left the force after being caught sexually harassing some of the Black female inmates. There were never really any official consequences for his actions, however the embarrassment of everyone knowing was too much for him. His wife of five years left him after discovering what he had done, taking their two children with her, and he wasn't able to find a steady job elsewhere. He took up drinking and the station refused to hire him again, which ultimately led to his demise as a lowly drunk.
"This is all your fault! That man is dead because of you! You and all the other n*gger women just couldn't leave him alone huh!? Nobody wanted you, so you tried to seduce him! You seduced him an-and now he's gone, gone forever-" he broke off his misguided tirade and began to cry. Aibileen had never seen a white man cry before, and it was pretty uncomfortable to watch. She wanted to back away from him, but as soon as she tried to make the move, he grabbed her.
Snarling as the anger inside of him built up, he wanted to lock her away on whatever false accusations he could come up with. But he just couldn't. Deep down inside of him, despite his horrible words, he knew it wasn't actually her fault and he didn't really want to hurt her. His expression softened slightly, lost in confusion.
Aibileen was face to face with him, their noses almost touching with eyes fixed on each other. She saw that his mind was elsewhere, looking through her rather than at her. His eyes were full of sorrow and pain, feelings that she knew all too well. She wrapped her arms around him and prayed hard, out-loud so he could hear her words. The man was caught off guard but he didn't pull away. Right now he didn't care that she was a colored woman, nor did he care about the prejudices he had been surrounded by and fed his entire life. He hugged her back, and shed more tears while being prayed over.
Before long the two of them had settled down in the living room of her home, with tears dry and tea brewing. He decided to open up and share the story of the argument that ended his friendship with the man that had attacked Aibileen.
"His name was Richard, we was real close. We grew up together, we wanted to be police officers and we did that. We trained and worked together, heck we even got married on the same day. We were both enjoying our lives, and like any good men we wanted to start families of our own and have lots of kids. He was lucky, after a couple months his wife was pregnant, with twins! Me and my wife tried for years, and finally on our fourth anniversary it happened. I'd never seen her look so happy…" he sighed.
"For six months she carried my child, six long and grueling months; she was always in pain, she could barely move some days it was so bad…It killed her. A tubular pregnancy, I didn't know until it was too late, I didn't even know what it was…" he sat there and looked down at the floor. Talking about his life was difficult, and the whole ordeal troubled him greatly. But he needed to get this burden off his shoulders, and Aibileen was there to listen. She sat next to him and waited until he was ready. The officer took a deep breath and continued.
"I was bitter. Bitter and jealous. I knew how he was, I knew he lusted after negro women, but he'd never admit it. He would sneak around behind his wife's back. Someone like him could have twins, but a decent man like me had to lose his wife to a pregnancy? It seemed real unfair to me. I broke his jaw and he broke my nose" he said with the slightest hint of a chuckle in his voice. He huffed and lightly rocked back and forth in his seat.
"He left the station after the fight and we lost contact. I heard some rumors of a cop in the neighboring city who had a thing for coloreds. I hoped it wasn't him, but something in my gut told me it was…I went there so we could patch things up but the chief informed me he turned in his badge months prior…It just breaks my heart knowing that he had gotten so low, and I was never there for him afterwards. I tried…I tried searching for him, I was sorry, and I wanted to say so!" he tightened his lips as the emotions inside of him were reaching their peak.
"Damnit Richard, what was wrong with you?…Ma'am" he looked over to the former maid, directly into her eyes this time "I'm sorry for him, I'm sorry for what he tried to do to you…A man just has certain needs sometimes, you gotta understand, he was still a good guy. Just sick and conflicted is all…"
Aibileen only nodded, not knowing what to say back. Though in her thoughts she knew Richard was no good. His death was violent, but rape was still inexcusable. Yet this white man would never see it from her point of view, never in a million years. This white man who was most likely as uncaring as his departed friend about the continued suffering of colored women. This white man who had bared so much of his pain to her, the pain of losing loved ones just like she had experienced. This white man…
"What's yo' name?" the question escaping her lips before she could stop it. She blinked a few times watching the officer's expression, she wanted to take her eyes off of him but couldn't for some reason.
"Bill. It's Bill. And what's yours?"
"A-Aibileen" she said a little uncomfortably.
"'Aibileen' huh? That's a right pretty name gal- I mean, ma'am…Aibileen." he said with a crooked smile. He gazed at her for a few moments and suddenly got up, tipping his police cap and thanking her kindly for listening. He left in such a hurry that she wasn't even able to say goodbye to him.
Little did she know she would have many more opportunities to speak with him again. Today was only the beginning of a relationship no one would ever have expected.